Fiction Consultations with Jen Michalski
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Black Lawrence Press author Jen Michalski is on board to critique fiction manuscripts. Jen graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a BA in English and received her MS in Professional Writing from Towson University. She was voted one of the best authors in Maryland by CBS News, one of "50 Women to Watch" by The Baltimore Sun, and "Best Writer" by Baltimore Magazine. She’s the author of four novels, the most recent of which, ALL THIS CAN BE TRUE, was published in 2025 by Turner/Keylight. Her debut novel, THE TIDE KING, was winner of the Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press
Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in more than 100 publications, including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Writer's Digest, Psychology Today, The Literary Hub, and others. She's the founding editor of the weekly literary journal jmww and lives in Southern California, although she’s always a Baltimore girl at heart.
Jen is accepting everything from flash fiction to novels. The fees and parameters for each of these categories is as follows:
- Flash fiction, up to 2 pages in length, $25
- Short stories, up to 20 pages in length, $55
- Chapbooks, up to 40 pages in length, $275
- Novellas, up to 100 pages in length, $425
- Short story collections, up to 180 pages in length, $550
- Novels, up to 300 pages in length, $785
All manuscripts should be double spaced and formatted in 12-point font.
The deadline to submit work for this consultation program is January 31. Jen will complete her work and respond to all participants by February 28.
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Jen Michalski's Statement of Purpose
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
― W. Somerset Maugham
It often feels like this, doesn't it? Having published four novels, however, I’ve found there are definite notes that a novel must hit in order to make it unforgettable. In my consultation, I’ll discuss your novel or short story with you in terms of these notes: its beginning, its characterizations, its voice, its pacing, and perhaps most important of all—its need. Why does this story need to be told? Is it being told by the right character in the most effective setting and timeline? For short story collections, I will consider your broader themes and tone, your ideal reader(s), and the order and cohesion of your pieces.
In addition to in-text feedback (prompting for clarification, or emphasis, not line editing or chapter-level revision), I will provide a detailed letter of my general impressions and suggestions to make sure the novel you're sending to agents and publishers most closely reflects your vision.
After we’ve finished, I think we’ll be quoting a different man of letters:
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
—George Peppard’s character John “Hannibal” Smith from The A Team